A Tropical Storm

Well y'all.  My weekend of BIG PLANS got cancelled.  I live in Florida.  Florida has tropical storms.  And hurricanes.  It just so happens that of ALL the weekends in the year, Tropical Storm Beryl chose my BIG ONE to come ashore at the very beach I was planning to sit on.

Rats.

This storm was ugly y'all.  She (or he?) had lifeguards saving over 150 people in the ocean due to rip currents.  I'm SO thankful we decided to cancel our trip because we would have been miserable sitting in the room watching it rain and the wind blow 66 miles an hour.  And the ocean?  Forget-about-it.

On Sunday when it was clear that the beach was absolutely out of the picture, we decided to head to another city about 3 hours from home and watch a good friend of ours play in a big baseball game.  It was great to watch the top 80 players in the state of Florida play baseball!  They pitched and fielded some kind of amazing!

Monday I was able to meet my brother and my nieces for some bowling and games!  The kids had a blast and were so excited to see and spend time with one another!

I'll be sure to post more pictures this week from the baseball game and our afternoon at the bowling alley!

~CB~

I've Got Big Plans

I've got some BIG plans for this weekend.  HUGE.  It involves....

Sitting.
Eating.
Reading.
Sunbathing.
Swimming.
Family.
Friends.

I MIGHT get out of my beach chair at some point...but I don't plan on it.  I'm so excited to be spending a few days at the beach with my brother and my nieces, and my used-to-be-full-time-babysitter, but doesn't babysit much for us anymore, but still comes to our house all the time because she loves us, good friend-almost daughter, Patricia.  (HA!)

These two boys are READY for some fun in the sun with their favorite cousins!!!

 ~CB~

A "how to" for Moms of BOYS

With lots of baseball comes lots of laundry!  Not just any laundry, but clay stained baseball pants laundry!  My wonderful mother-in-law taught me a trick years ago that she used on my hubby's baseball pants and let me tell you right to the now--IT WORKS.

Take some of this MAGIC potion above--and soak the baseball pants in hot water with some Cascade, then wash the pants in Cascade.  It HAS to be the powder kind or it won't work!  Trust me.  Also, it HAS to be Cascade brand.  I've tried the off brands before and they just don't work worth a flip.  Trust me (again).  (Note:  it does not have to be the extra action with Dawn, blah blah blah)

As soon as you start soaking the pants, you will see the clay come to the surface of the water!  Seriously.  MAGIC. 

 I'm ever so thankful my mother-in-law shared this with me because I have to keep these cuties in WHITE pants!

Y'all give it a try and let me know how you LOVE it!

~CB~

Money Monday - Free Credit Report

For this week's "Money Monday", I want to encourage all of you to pull your credit report annually !  It's free and easy!  (I know I sound like a commercial, but it's true!)

I pull mine and the hubby's every single year and review it with a fine tooth comb!  I have had to write the credit bureaus before and ask  that they double check and/or remove information.  When I have had to do this, the bureaus are always very helpful!

The website I use for this is www.annualcreditreport.com .  They have no clue who I am, trust me - I'm not promoting them for profit I assure you!  I just love how easy their website is to navigate the credit reports and be able to print them.  You can your report from all 3 major bureaus or just one or two...it's up to you.

I'm starting to run out of topics to cover for Money Monday so if there's something you want me to cover, send me an email or leave me a comment and I'll try and cover it for you!

And because I can't have a post with no pictures (the grandparents would have my head), here is one of my Nolan during a HOT game!

Happy Monday!

~CB~

First Melon of the Season

Being the sons of a watermelon farmer, it's a tradition that we always get the "first melon of the season".  The boys enjoyed eating one on the back porch last week.  As of last Friday a week ago, we are officially in harvest !

~CB~

Flip Flops

I am planning to do a Mother's Day post (not that there is much to report) and some more baseball posts about our fabulous season, but for now, here is what I got for Mother's Day!!

LOVE MY NEW FLIP FLOPS!  My brother said it was diamonds and rubies!  HA!

I have the "baseball tan line" on my feet already from wearing flip flops to all the boys games and getting some sun--check this out!  Can you see the permanent "flip flop lines" on my feet?  HA!  This is definitely a sign that I'm at the ball field ALL THE TIME.  (and yes, my toenails need painting and I need a pedicure--as soon as we're done with the season, I'll get one I promise)

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day !

~CB~

Making a Menu

Last week I blogged about making a grocery list and this week for "Money Monday" I'm going to show you how I make my menu.

My sweet Mama always made her menu on Sunday afternoons and I can still see it in my mind hanging on our refrigerator door on a sheet of college-ruled notebook paper, line drawn straight down the center and everything labeled by day!  I have to say that I definitely follow in her footsteps when it comes to menu making, but I'm not quite as stringent as she was on the whole "straight lines down notebook paper thing".  HA!  I have a cute little menu notepad that I use to write my menu on for the week (and sometimes if I have extra time I'll make a menu for several weeks).

 Usually I will flip through my cookbooks if I'm wanting to try something new and then I'll write down the name of the dish, etc. on whatever day we'll be having that, then I put the book and page number next to it so I know where to go back to.  It would be just like me to forget where on earth I saw that "new recipe".  HA!

The other thing I do when making my menu is cross-reference my calendar!  We are so busy these days with both boys playing baseball, etc. so I know I can't make a dish that takes over an hour on a baseball night.  If I have a meeting or if we have church, then quicker meals have to be on the menu!

I encourage you to make a menu! It will make your house run a little more smoothly and help you save money in the process since you aren't running to the store 5 times a week!

Do you make a menu?  If so, what is your process?

~CB~

A Sweet Video (that made me cry)

I stumbled upon this YouTube video this morning.  Let me warn you to get out your tissues!  I have watched it three times now and cried three times.




~CB~

All the boys enjoy baseball

As stated in my previous post, my boys were in a tournament this past weekend.  It so happened that my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and new baby nephew were in town.

Baby cousin "E" got his picture with the Red Sox boys!

Little E didn't see much of the game, but we had to document that he showed up!  HA!

~CB~

The cutest Red Sox you'll ever see....

My boys were in a big 2-day baseball tournament this past weekend and WE WON the CHAMPIONSHIP!!  It was SO AMAZING to see these boys play their little hearts out in the Florida HEAT!!!  (more on the tourney later in the week I hope)

Here are my cute lil' Red Sox.....

Does it get any cuter?

~CB~

Grocery List

I think I would like to try and do a little "Money Monday" on my blog....one of our huge goals for the past year or two (and ongoing) is to get out of debt.  There are SO many aspects of that - couponing, paying off credit cards, saving money, groceries, etc.   This week, I'm choosing to show you how I do my grocery list.

I am often asked how I do my grocery shopping and grocery lists since I am one of those "crazy coupon people".

When you think crazy coupon lady, you probably think 50 bottles of mustard in the pantry or hundreds of boxes of spaghetti noodles.  For the record, I don't even have 3 bottles of mustard in the pantry or spaghetti noodles.  So there.  HA!

I am a couponer and grocery list maker, but definitely not the TLC tv show type.  I'm pretty good at it, but not that good and I don't have that kind of time to devote to it.  I do have a binder, which I showed you before, and it definitely helps me stay organized with both my list making and my shopping !  Typically, my rule is "no coupon, no purchase".

Usually, I keep a list of items we need or that we run out of then add it to my master list when it's time to go grocery shopping.  I also try and match up what is on that list with what is on sale that week.

 First, I get the weekly sales ad from the store I like to shop at.  I go through it one time very quickly to browse, then I go back through it with pen in hand and circle anything that I know is a good price and that is on my master list.  I also circle any BOGO items that we need or that I have coupons for and that I know we'll be needing in the near future.  For example, we go through Ritz crackers like crazy, so even if I don't have a coupon for them, if they're BOGO, I'm buying 'em.

I tend to go to the store either really late at night or very early in the morning.  I don't like lines and I don't like taking my kids so those times work for me.  Hubby is either home to keep them or they are with my loving in-laws.  It's not unusual for me to offer to pick up whatever my mother-in-law needs if she'll just keep my kids and vice-versa (many times she'll call me to say she is going to Sam's and ask if I need anything)....

I keep my coupons close by and make sure I get everything on my list, as extra trips to the grocery store are not in my time budget!

That's my quick n easy guide to grocery list making and grocery shopping!  HA!

~CB~

a new BABY cousin!!

About 6 weeks ago, our family was blessed with a new baby!!  Hubby's brother and his wife had a little baby boy !!!

My boys LOVE their newest cousin and enjoy holding him and talking to him!  They've only seen him a few times (baby boy cousin lives about 1.5 hours from us), but are absolutely smitten.

Baby boy cousin is here visiting for a few days so my boys got to love on him some.....(sorry for the quality of these pictures--they were taken from our phones).

Nolan and Carter want to know when their new cousin can play ball.  Oh mercy.

~CB~